Heathrow – Terminal 5
Posted on: Sun, 2008-04-06 17:32
Offline
Heathrow – Terminal 5
The Royal British F***up
Flying British Airways was probably the biggest mistake so far this year.
After my original flight from San Francisco to London was canceled, due to its emergency landing in Shannon, Ireland, I was able to hitch a ride on an earlier BA flight, being delayed long enough to leave even after my original flight was scheduled.
I still had plenty of time to connect in Heathrow, so everything should be fine, right?
Wrong! Nothing could be further from the truth. Sunday, April 06, 2008 was one of my worst nightmares, trying to connect out of Heathrow.
After the horror airport forced our plane to circle above the London sky for nearly an hour, we finally got permission to land and after a rough approach, forcing people to yell out more than once, we finally touched down, just so we could stand on the runway for another hour.
By now, my connection flight was already scheduled to have left, but since everything was delayed, I was still hopeful to make the connection.
Turns out my flight was not delayed it was CANCELLED! Apparently due to the bad weather in the morning. Since there was sunshine upon my arrival, I just had to take their word for it.
My connection was into Dusseldorf and no other flight was scheduled to leave on BA. Finally, I got a flight to Frankfurt at 8pm (5 hours later), but since all flights after 5pm are effectively CANCELLED, I am now on standby for the 5:45 flight to Dusseldorf. It is 6:24 now and my standby flight still hasn't arrived yet.
BA Terminal at San Francisco:
BA customer service line, terminal 5:
Confused Travelers and BA officials at Terminal 5
What a nightmare. I hope you make it to your destination, Andre.
As it turns out, this was just the start.
Finally my flight came up and I hurried to Terminal 002, where I was on standby for the Dusseldorf machine. As it turns out, so were a lot of others, even those originally booked on this flight.
The flight boarded and two of the standby people made it onto the flight, while most of us got stuck again. It was the last flight out to Dusseldorf that day, since all others had been canceled. At this time, I was already 7 hours late.
Everybody stayed calm when the BA employee tried to find alternate airports for everyone. Since there was still some vacancy on the Cologne flight (and no others) that was to be the one. Everyone got their boarding pass, except me: STANDBY.
Since I had been traveling for so long and no access to water, I started to get very dizzy. A lady suggested I might suffer from dehydration and since I hadn't been to the restroom for 8 hours and had nothing to drink for even a longer time, I figured that she was right. Another friendly fella offered me the 1.2 pounds necessary to get some water out of the vending machine. It was quite honorable how people were cheering each other up and helping each other out. But then again, maybe someone was feeling a sorry for the poor guy without a ticket.
After the flight boarded, I finally got the call and was rushed onto the plane. We then waited fir quite a while, as the baggage handlers filled the airplane. Despite the flatulence of the woman next to me, I made it safely to Cologne, where Lufthansa offered a cab ride to the Dusseldorf airport, which I gladly accepted. The taxi driver must have mistaken his car for an airplane, flying at 180 km/h through the night. We finally arrived at a completely deserted airport. I asked to be taken downtown Dusseldorf, checking into the hotel at 1am (8 hours late).
It is 2am now and I am just exhausted and feel violated by BA.
Thank God for Lufthansa, who took over some of the overflow.
From now on, no more BA or Heathrow. I will try to book on Lufthansa from now on and get a 'Miles and More' Account.
Out of the 185 cancelled flights today, 126 were BA
It wasn't so much the general lack of functionality that people should be upset about, but the lack of organization and personnel. Nobody knew anything and mostly the answer was "maybe". There was no information available.
Waiting lines were mislabeled as they changed and nobody was there to help. The service desks required you to stand in line TWICE sometimes, taking many hours.
Why was there no soft opening and slow transition to this terminal instead of moving the bulk of the BA traffic there at once? It is not the stressed BA employees but the poor management that is to blame for this screwup.
I didn't check any luggage (thank God), but that didn't get me through the airport any quicker.
OMG ! :(
I feel guilty coz my avie is grinning